The All India Drug Control Officers’ Confederation (AIDCOC) will soon
approach the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) demanding to include
pharmaceutical science in the optional subject list of UPSC’s civil
services examinations.
AIDCOC, in association with the Delhi unit
of Indian Pharmacy Graduates' Association, will soon submit the
memorandum to the UPSC after mobilizing support from Pharmacy Council of
India (PCI) and associations of pharmacy professionals and students,
said Ravi Uday Bhaskar, secretary general of AIDCOC.
He said the
association will send circulars in this regard to all the pharmacy
colleges in India, students’ organizations, teachers associations and to
the associations of college managements. Support of the leaders of
pharma industry will also be sought.
Pharmaceutical science is a
professional subject like medicine, engineering and architecture. Apart
from other basic subjects, agriculture, veterinary, engineering and
medicine are included in the curriculum of civil services examination,
but pharmaceutical science is not included. It is, in fact, a kind of
discrimination towards this noble profession and the subject, he said.
Atul
Kumar Nasa, president of IPGA Delhi, said since pharmacy profession is a
technical profession, a copy of the memorandum will be forwarded to All
India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for support. He said
pharmaceutical science, unlike other subjects, is a subject directly
related to the health and welfare of the public, and pharmacists have
become an integral and inseparable component of the Indian society. So,
the opportunities to serve the community with administrative power
should not be shunned in the case of pharmacy professionals.
M
Dilip Kumar, Tamil Nadu state secretary of the Confederation while
speaking to Pharmabiz said the pharmacists in India have been making
this demand for the last 15 years to UPSC, but the efforts bore no
fruit. He said if this subject is included in the list, the pharmacy
professionals will get a chance to enter into the administrative side
serving in various civil services positions.
